Father’s Day

With the overwhelming news that we had received earlier in the week and Doug’s change in medication, I wasn’t really sure what Father’s Day would look like this year.  Meg had told me that Gabrielle took an early flight so that we could celebrate with Doug if we wanted to, which I was very glad to hear.  Doug told Meg and I to plan what we did, so Meg suggested going to Disney Springs.  Once we found out that we could go to Beak and Barrel in Magic Kingdom we changed our minds and made a reservation there. Meg said that they did not have much more than appetizers, so we planned dinner at the park as well and I picked The Plaza Restaurant.  We had never been and it looked like a great menu for us.

Before Doug and I went to mass this morning, he opened his gifts from Cal and I.  Cal had sent him a book on Larry Bird that had gotten great reviews and I gave him a vintage classical music vinyl with plenty of snacks to last him through the week.  Brett had given him a bottle of bourbon earlier in the summer which he opened last night and Cameron had given him his gift early as well, a Peach Bowl Championship football hat.  Mass was very touching this morning focusing on fathers and their roles in a child’s life.  We left for Orlando as soon as it was over.

Meg had a gift for Doug to open when we arrived.  She had given him a water bottle with an infuser to put cucumbers, lemons or other fruits in it to flavor his water.  I loved it as Doug had increased the amount of water that he had drank lately and enjoyed natural flavors in it.  We headed to Magic Kingdom next thinking that we would walk around before going to dinner.  

We were surprised to see that the monorail was filled with more people leaving the park than arriving.  I was glad as that would make our afternoon a lot more fun.  Our first stop was the popcorn stand outside of Cinderella’s Castle.  I was thrilled that they still had Sam the Eagle patriot popcorn buckets and bought one right away.   We then walked down Main Street looking at the merchandise before heading to The Plaza.  It was smaller than we realized, but very nice and we all enjoyed our meals.  It was also wonderful to be out of the heat for a while.  After dinner, we walked to the Jungle Cruise, but the line was too long for us.  We enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean instead.  We had just enough time to ride The Haunted Mansion before heading to the Beak and Barrel. We absolutely loved the pirate themed bar.  Our bartender was excellent and the decorations were perfect.  There was even a singing parrot behind the bar who led the waiters in a round of “Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a Pirate’s Life for Me.”  Our waiter was the loudest and most entertaining.  We were there long enough to have a snack and try a couple of drinks. It was the perfect end to a wonderful Father’s Day!